Cambridge United

Ground: Abbey Stadium

Visits: 1

Date: 29th December 2018

Match: Cambridge United - Lincoln City 1-2 (League 2)

Attendance: 6 858

Last year I went to Portugal during the New Year and Portugal/Spain was a possible destination this time around as well. In the end I decided it was time to start the final push towards completing the 92. At the moment I am missing five grounds in League 2 plus the new Spurs stadium. My last game in England was a while ago, August 2017, but then again my Easter trip in 2018 was cancelled due to the death of my mother. Anyway, this time around it was possible to attend five games in four days and two of those would count towards the 92. My journey to England started on Friday evening and around 8pm I was at my hotel in central Birmingham, my base for the first four nights on this trip. For Saturday 29 December I had three options Newport, Crewe or Cambridge. With the visitors at Abbey Stadium in Cambridge being league leaders Lincoln City I decided to head to the city where Andrew Wiles in 1993 presented his famous proof of Fermat´s Last Theorem.

At 09.22 on Saturday morning my Cross country train departed Birmingham New Street and 12.09, on time, I arrived in Cambridge. The city of Cambridge is of course most famous for its university which was founded in 1209. The local football team, Cambridge United, has mostly played in the lower leagues but 1978 to 1984 and 1991 to 1993 the club played in the second tier of English football. In the 1983/84 season the club famously played 31 successive games without winning a game. Since 2015 the club has played in League 2 but at the moment they are just above the relegation zone. Abbey Stadium is quite far from the train station but there is a local bus service going from the station to the ground. Normally I don´t have to buy in advance for League 2 fixtures but wanting a good seat, there are plenty of obstructed views, I purchased a ticket in advance for this game. Abbey Stadium has a capacity of 8 127 and is a lovely mixture of stands. The most modern stand is the all-seated South Stand but this is for away fans only. For bigger games away fans get half of the Habbin Terrace as well. For the visit of Lincoln City 6 855 fans, best attendance of the season, was inside Abbey Stadium. 2 250 of those had travelled down from Lincoln and for League 2 that is a very good number. I was at the ground two hours prior to kick-off but there was already plenty of fans outside the ground. As the turnstiles opened I entered the ground and after taking pictures of the empty stands I went to the Dion Dublin bar where I had a drink and watched Rangers v Celtic on tv.

Cambridge United are fourth from bottom and Lincoln top of the league. In the first half Cambridge was the better team though and at half-time it was 1-0. It could have been more as Cambridge hit the bar as well. In the second half Lincoln fought back and with two goals within 5 minutes it was suddenly 1-2. The equalizing goal was scored from a well-taken free-kick by the way. There was 8 minutes of stoppage time at Abbey Stadium and Cambridge came really close to equalize. No more goals though and to the delight of the travelling fans Lincoln held on all three points. After the game I didn´t want to be caught up in traffic with the bus and decided to walk all the way back to the train station. It took me 35 minutes which meant I made the train back to Birmingham with 20 minutes to spare.